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CASE Studentship Open Competition
Priority areas
The Open CASE competition will continue to award thirty-five to thirty-seven studentships. Of these, up to five studentships will be awarded in each of the four priority areas (water, insurance, agrifood, environmental sensing and instrumentation) listed below, to facilitate collaboration with businesses. Applications to priority areas may only include private sector partners.
Water
(While this area will be predominantly freshwater-orientated, seawater-related projects will be considered.)
Please prefix the title of an application [WATER].
Areas could include:
- Water quality;
- Water resources;
- Extreme events.
Insurance
(Environment risk management.)
Please prefix the title of an application [INSURANCE].
Examples include:
- Natural hazard impact on expected physical damage losses and understanding associated uncertainty. This theme considers weather or other natural environmental phenomena posing risks that need to be managed, eg weather-related damage, earthquake damage, etc.
- Risk to the environment arising from uncertainty in business activity and impact of events. This theme refers to business processes/activities that pose a risk to the environment, eg pollution of water, destruction of biodiversity, pollution of air and resulting effects on health of human and other animal/plant life.
- Risk to insurers arising from uncertainties in environmental correlations between liabilities. Insurers need to spread risk but they can only choose to do this if they understand the correlations between sources of risk in their portfolios. Unexpected correlations will arise through environmental factors.
- Risk to environment-dependent business from uncertainty in environment. This theme considers businesses that rely on uncertain natural resources such as weather (eg wind generation, farming) or marine life (eg fishing).
- New market opportunities for insurers due to climate change and new technology. This theme considers the rise in importance of climate change on the business agenda and how it affects the assessment of risks in environment risk management.
Agrifood
(Chemical pathways, soils, pesticide impacts, etc.)
Please prefix the title of an application [AGRIFOOD].
Examples include:
- Sustainable management of water resources for novel crops not previously cultivated in UK catchments. This topic integrates land management issues and addresses agriculture-water industry abstraction conflicts. The drivers of climate change and economics may introduce new crops into existing catchments which could have a profound impact on catchment water quality through altered water abstraction requirements, agrochemical pollutant levels, and sediment loading.
- The impact of intensive farming on integrated catchment management (ICM). The environmental impact of intensive farming and associated pollutants from fertilisers, farmyard drainage, silage and livestock on catchment management needs to be addressed. The holistic approach of ICM requires an understanding of the prospect of intensive farming, thus presenting both catchment modelling opportunities and a driver for innovative real-time sensing equipment; of use to the water industry.
- Parameterisation and environmental measures to inform valuation methodologies for natural resources utilised by the agriculture sector. The abolition of set-aside in January 2009 and current economic drivers have placed the biodiversity gains from this agri-environment scheme at risk. Valuation of biodiversity and natural resources in the agricultural sector will provide an economic consideration of these resources during decisions over land use.
- Constructed wetlands as an agricultural pollution abatement technology at the catchment scale. Dilute point and diffuse pollution from agriculture has an economic impact on the water industry and that of ecosystem services. Innovative use and development of constructed wetlands on a catchment scale can address challenges such as habitat provision for biodiversity, hydrological storage, water quality improvement, mitigation of the impact of extreme events, and carbon capture and storage.
- Greenhouse gas emission reduction through innovative logistics systems in the agrifood sector. Approximately 18% of UK greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the agrifood sector. Innovative transport and logistics systems for the sector that will reduce emissions will greatly assist the UK in meeting its CO2 targets. Whole life cycle modelling of produce produced nationally, and validation methodologies, will inform transport and logistics in the agrifood sector and will be of benefit to all food retailers.
- Climate change and the risk of invasive species and new pests. With a changing environment there is the opportunity for the introduction of new agricultural and horticultural crops, but there is also the prospect of the changed environment being conducive to invasive species, or allowing for the proliferation of pests. With a direct economic impact on the sector it is imperative we understand the environmental changes as they relate to invasive species and pests of new crops not previously cultivated in the UK.
Environmental Sensing & Instrumentation
(For any aspect of environmental science.)
Please prefix the title of an application [ENVIRON].
Examples include:
- 4 dimensional sensor networks for monitoring complete environmental systems (eg water catchments, urban air quality, large oceanic systems);
- Specific measurement challenges (measuring biomass in mixed municipal waste, automated ecological survey techniques);
- Cheap, small, robust sensors for a vast range of analytes;
- Support technologies for field instrumentation (power scavenging, wireless networking, bio-fouling, tethers and buoys, etc);
- Instrument platforms (our recent event covered aerial platforms, but the same issues apply to oceanic platforms such as benthic landers).
